As a window for understanding the relationship between globalization and the state's pursuit of national industrial development, this book examines how and why the Chinese government succeeded in leveraging China's international competitive advantages to modernize the country's automotive industry from 1978 to 2001.
As a window for understanding the relationship between globalization and the state's pursuit of national industrial development, this book examines how and why the Chinese government succeeded in leveraging China's international competitive advantages to modernize the country's automotive industry.
In Driving toward Modernity, Jun Zhang ethnographically explores the entanglement between the rise of the automotive regime and emergence of the middle class in South China. Focusing on the Pearl River Delta, one of the nation's wealthiest regions, Zhang shows how private cars have shaped everyday middle-class sociality, solidarity, and subjectivity, and how the automotive regime has helped make the new middle classes of the PRC. By carefully analyzing how physical and social mobility intertwines, Driving toward Modernity paints a nuanced picture of modern Chinese life, comprising the continuity and rupture as well as the structure and agency of China's great transformation.
In Inside China's Automobile Factories, Lu Zhang explores the current conditions, subjectivity, and collective actions of autoworkers in the world's largest and fastest-growing automobile manufacturing nation. Based on years of fieldwork and extensive interviews conducted at seven large auto factories in various regions of China, Zhang provides an inside look at the daily factory life of autoworkers and a deeper understanding of the roots of rising labor unrest in the auto industry. Combining original empirical data and sophisticated analysis that moves from the shop floor to national political economy and global industry dynamics, the book develops a multilayered framework for understanding how labor relations in the auto industry and broader social economy can be expected to develop in China in the coming decades.
This book brings together conceptual and empirical analyses of the causes and consequences of changing business–government relations in China since the 1990s, against the backdrop of the country’s increased integration with the global political economy. More specifically, it provides an interdisciplinary account of how the dominant patterns of interactions between state actors, firms and business organizations have changed across regions and industries, and how the changing varieties of these patterns have interacted with the evolution of key market institutions in China. The contributors to this edited volume posit that business–government relations comprise a key linchpin that defines the Chinese political economy and calibrates the character of its constitutive institutional arrangements.
This book examines China, the world's largest auto market since 2008 and the story of how Chinese auto-makers developed is the story of the Chinese economy in microcosm. It focuses on China's systemically important automobile sector, this book reveals how local institutions have moderated structural changes at national and global levels, and consequently generated significant organizational diversity in the production sphere.This book begins with the intriguing observation that individual Chinese car makers have been evolving in different directions despite a shared context; what factors led to these diverse choices and positioning? It is the central aim of this book to explain the variety of institutional forms used by Chinese car manufacturers in navigating the market transition and answering the challenges posed by globalization.
Revised and updated, this thoughtful, balanced and highly readable work provides a succinct, yet comprehensive and cohesive overview of China's path to modernization, preparing readers to understand the complex interaction between the Chinese cultural traditional and the internal and external pressures for change that led China onto the path of revolution and Communism. Evaluating the impact of Mao Ze-dong's thought and action on China's development, it explores the nature of Deng Xiao-ping's "second revolution" that reversed many of Maoist policies that put the country on the road to economic prosperity but which also created serious economic and political imbalances that will continue to plague China in the near future. Develops and sustains a narrative line not usually available in survey histories of China, presenting an internal coherence within each chapter that provides not only an integrated picture of political, cultural, and economic developments but also a convenient foundation to grasp the sequence of fundamental changes in China. Provides a brief summary of China's past history, focusing on the ideology and institutions that molded Chinese political culture. Covers critical transition periods, such as the collapse of the Manchu dynasty and the establishment of the first republic; the shift of power from the Nationalists to the Communists; and the rise of Deng Xiao-ping after the passing away of Mao Ze-dong. Expands coverage on many areas, including Tibet, PRC in Taiwan, and Hong Kong; the Sino-Indian war of 1962, and the Sino-Vietnamese war of 1979; plus social, economic, and cultural topics in various periods.
Since 2008, while the global automotive manufacturing has been faltering, the Chinese auto industry has been swiftly transformed into the largest producer in the world. The growth of the Chinese automakers is a close reflection of China's powerful manufacturing economy, and Geely Auto is one such best example. This book closely examines the rise of Geely as a privately-owned automaker in China. From its humble beginning as a refrigerator component maker and motorcycle manufacturer in the late twentieth century, Geely has grown to become not only a top selling national brand in China, the largest auto market in the world, but also a significant player in the global automotive industry. The book studies Geely's successful acquisition of Volvo, within a long-term framework of asset-seeking foreign direct investment, and then further investigates its recent strategic initiatives with Daimler, London Taxi, PROTON and Lotus. The book reveals how the little-known carmaker is worth close examination, via its product development, organizational dynamics, corporate culture, brand development, talent and cross-cultural management strategies, as well as the entrepreneurship of its visionary founder Shufu Li. From catching up in technology to a leader in product, service and business model innovations, Geely has driven out as a new Chinese automaker on the world stage. Facing challenges in clean energy and Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, new user's experience towards smart and mobility solution, Geely will continue to play an increasingly important role in the globalization age of the twenty-first century.
Analysing developments in digital technologies and institutional changes, this book provides an overview of the current frenetic state of transformation within the global automobile industry. An ongoing transition brought about by the relocation of marketing, design and production centres to emerging economies, and experimentation with new mobility systems such as electrical, autonomous vehicles, this process poses the question as to how original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and newcomers can remain competitive and ensure sustainability. With contributions from specialists in the automobile sector, this collection examines the shifts in power and geographical location occurring in the industry, and outlines the key role that public policy has in generating innovation in entrepreneurial states. Offering useful insights into the challenges facing emerging economies in their attempts to grow within the automobile industry, this book will provide valuable reading for those researching internationalization and emerging markets, business strategy and more specifically, the automotive industry.
China's rise to global economic and strategic eminence, with the potential for achieving pre-eminence in the greater-Asian region, is one of the defining characteristics of the post-Cold War period. This work offers a basic understanding of the military-strategic basis and trajectory of a rising China, provides background, and outlines current and future issues concerning China's rise in strategic-military influence. The next decade may witness China's assertion of military or strategic pressure on Japan, the Korean Peninsula, India, the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, Central Asia, or even on behalf of future allies in Africa and Latin America. While conflict is not a foregone conclusion, as indicated by China's increasing participation in many benign international organizations, it is a fact that China's leadership will pursue its interests as it sees them, which may not always coincide with those of the United States, its friends, and allies. Until now, no single volume has existed that provides an authoritative, comprehensive, and concise description of China's evolving geo-strategy or of how China is transforming its military to carry out this strategy. Fisher examines how China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) remains critical to the existence of the Chinese Communist government and looks at China's political and military actions designed to protect its expanded strategic interests in both the Asia-Pacific and Central to Near-Asian regions. Using open sources, including over a decade of unique interview sources, Fisher documents China's efforts to build a larger nuclear force that may soon be protected by missile defenses, modern high technology systems for space, air, and naval forces, and how China is now beginning to assemble naval, air, and ground forces for future power projection missions. His work also examines how the United States and other governments simultaneously seek greater engagement with China on strategic concerns, while hedging against its rising power. Although China faces both internal and external constraints on its rise to global eminence, it cannot be denied that China's government is pursuing a far-reaching strategic agenda.